10 Good Reasons Why Hand-Written Direct Mail Is So Effective
Considering direct mail marketing ideas for your 2023 lead generation stratedgy? In an era where people are becoming over-bombarded with online marketing, receiving something that we can physically hold in our hands is a magical experience. That is why people love handwritten mail – it’s a refreshing countermeasure to our busy online lives. The tactile experience forges a connection that is known to increase brand recognition and recall by 27% more than online interactions. Now that’s quite something to grasp!
It’s not just us saying it either, research shows that people of all ages engage with mail. 94% of mail is opened, read or filed and 70% of people said mail gives them a better impression of the company that sent it.
So, here’s 10 reasons you should use handwritten letters in your direct mail campaigns:
1. They get opened and read
Let’s face it, we live in a noisy digital age where quite frankly it’s difficult to get your message heard especially through digital means such as email marketing. Letters of any type are becoming increasingly scarce yet, according to Royal Mail, and backed up by a US Postal study, 65% of people say they give posted mail their higher attention. So when a handwritten letter lands on a doormat, you can begin to realise just how much impact it has on the recipient. It is estimated that over 90% of people who receive a handwritten letter or note will open it and read it.
2. They get responded to
Increased response rates to marketing communications for any business is extremely important – and direct mail has the greatest growth potential for innovative brand marketing ideas. A ‘good’ response rate in email marketing is considered to be around 10%. Response rates to handwritten letters are typically three times higher than email sitting at around 30% – it’s a no brainer. Read how a large retailer achieved a staggering 50% increase in response rates.
3. They’re personal
There are literally hundreds of ways you can make someone feel really special, however, unlike email, handwritten letters take top place in being the most personal form of communication. A letter shouts dedicated personalisation; traditionally handwritten, the paper leaves your desk, those same words written by your hands and that same piece of paper finds its way to the recipient.
The whole emotion you experienced in writing the letter is transferred to the recipient perfectly preserved for them to enjoy the experience as the recipient.
On short, the ultimate one-to-one storytelling and marketing message.
4. They’re unexpected
As I’m sure you would have no doubt experienced, half of the joy of receiving a letter is that you didn’t know it was coming! It’s that ‘surprise and delight’ factor that leaves a lasting impression and you can’t help but to respond to.
5. They stay around for longer
According to Royal Mail, 45% of mail stays in the home for over 4 weeks and is read and reread over 4 times. This couldn’t be more different than an email communication that gets deleted or buried and forgotten in our inboxes or spam folders almost immediately.
6. Mail gets shared
Did you know that that 15% of mail is shared with another person? It may be that the content within the letter grabs the attention of the recipient and is then shared with friends or maybe the recipient is just so overjoyed at receiving the letter they can’t help shouting about it! Either way, it’s a real result for the sender who will be far more likely to remain in the recipient’s mind and heart for quite some time.
7. They are great website traffic drivers
Another fact according to Royal Mail; 25% of UK adults bought something, made a payment or a donation as a direct result of receiving mail. In addition to this, a staggering 41% of people searched online for more information about a company as a result of receiving mail in the last 12 months. This is a massive opportunity for online-only marketers who may have thought that direct mail was dead.
8. They’re trusted and believed
Research has shown that 87% of people trust traditional mail and consider it to be believable – handwritten mail would be higher still. On the other hand, with the huge rise in online and email scams over the past few years, more and more people are becoming suspicious of marketing emails. Coupled with this, email providers like Gmail are becoming more cautious, triggering spam filters into sending your carefully crafted emails straight to their doom before they’re even seen.
9. It’s an opportunity for creativity
Unlike an email, the personalisation of your handwritten letter is limited only by your imagination. There is not only a limitless supply of amazingly creative stationery but the physical things you can send and the overall presentation of your handwritten letter can also be endless. The Bank of New Zealand sent $1000 of shredded cash to potential customers to demonstrate that they were wasting their hard-earned money with other banks. It worked – mortgage lending and home loan enquiries went up by 13%!
10. It’s easier than you think
You may be forgiven for reading through all these points and be left thinking, ‘Yeah, but how can I find time to sit down and write 1000’s of letters to prospective customers?’ Well, the fact of the matter is that you don’t. RoboQuill offers a 100% authentic robotically handwritten letter service which enables you to send 1000’s of letters with no effort on your part whatsoever. That’s right, your recipients will never know that they weren’t handwritten by you.
So why don’t people use handwritten letters?
1. They are time-consuming
Handwriting letters is time-consuming and in today’s busy business world, it would be almost impossible to set aside the required time to handwrite letters on any sizable scale and we get that.
2. They cost too much
Similarly to point 1 above, we talk about time being money and it could be considered very costly to not only pay someone (or yourself) to handwrite letters but to also buy all the required stationery and of course stamps.
What about Robot Letter Handwriting?
The introduction of RoboQuill’s handwriting robot takes away the issues of time and cost and allows you to send handwritten direct mail for business (or private events), at a scale not seen before.
Our handwriting robots hold real pens and don’t use ‘fonts’, and the resulting effect is indistinguishable from the ‘real thing’.
Why not read our other interesting related articles such as Handwritten Letters vs Typed Letters for further confirmation of the benefits of handwritten content!
Contact the team at RoboQuill to see how you can embrace the power of the pen.